#BlogTour : The Last Friend by Harvey Church @HarveyChurch1 : @CarolineBookBit : #BookReview

“The Last Friend” by Harvey Church is available in eBook format from AMAZON UK or AMAZON.COM date of publication is 15th April. My thanks to Harvey for my copy of the book and also to Caroline at Bits about Books for my spot on the tour.

Synopsis:

The Knock on his Door…That Changed his Life

Fifteen years after Donovan’s daughter is abducted, Monica Russell knocks on his door. She claims she knew his daughter while in captivity and says she made a promise to tell him about their friendship.

The Last Friend to hold His Daughter’s Hand

When Monica claims to know where his daughter’s remains are buried, Donovan is immediately committed to doing whatever this last friend needs from him, regardless of the warnings from his family and friends.

The Friend Who Can Help Him Seek Vengeance

And when Monica claims to know where he can find the man who abducted, assaulted, and murdered his princess, Donovan knows he will stop at nothing to get his vengeance.

What Cost Will He Ultimately Pay?

Monica claims she can show Donovan a lot of things about his daughter, but what price will Donovan ultimately pay the young lady who claims to be the last friend to know his daughter?

My Thoughts:

Donovan’s daughter Elizabeth was abducted 15 years ago and his wife has recently committed suicide. One night Monica Russell lands on his doorstep and tells him that she was held captive with Elizabeth. Monica had promised Elizabeth that she would tell her Dad the truth of her life and death.

This book is the story of how far a father will go to discover the truth behind the kidnapping of his daughter. It tells a dark tale that had me guessing Monica’s motives. Was she stringing him along if so what were her reasons for doing so. Was she genuine and if she was why was she taking time to give Donovan all the facts. The characters of Donovan and Monica I really liked as I got to know them a little better. They both have a lot of problems as well as emotional scars that they have to live with.

This is quite a quick read and I found myself eagerly turning the pages to discover the truth and discovered a twisted and dark world. The plot takes you into a world of kidnapping girls and also what is done to them, but I will emphasise that the author does not go into graphic details here. He has chosen his words to convey enough to give an understanding of the situation.

This is a book that I would recommend to readers who read psychological, crime, mystery story from the perspective of the father of a victim and also a survivor.

About the Author:

Harvey Church has a background in finance, which is how he found himself writing about the people and ridiculousness (sometimes the same thing) of that field in his Edwin Burrows light mystery series. Although he considers himself retired from that field (aka not working), he’s planning another three Edwin Burrows novels for 2018.

His first “serious” novel, The Last Friend, is a Kindle Scout writing competition winner and was published by Kindle Press on January 9, 2018. The BookLife Prize called it “an entertaining read for mystery and thriller fans alike,” and said it is “an unexpected and exciting series of events that will grab readers.” Harvey plans two sister novels to The Last Friend in 2018, one titled The Last Night (Spring 2018) and the other tentatively titled The Last Survivor.

For fun, Harvey likes to practice street magic and spends hours engineering tricks to wow his audiences. He is also an avid hockey fan (Go Leafs Go). He has a wife and two kids. His favorite color is blue, but he drives a black car because he read somewhere, back in the 90’s, that radar detectors have a tough time seeing them. Interestingly, he never speeds because he’s too busy singing like nobody’s watching, or maybe it’s that everybody is deaf.

He’s a supporter of double-chins, double-dates, and double-dipping (though never on double-dates), and obviously enjoys writing about himself in the third person, in the voice of the narrator from The Royal Tenenbaums.

Connect with Harvey Church by searching Harvey Church Mysteries on Facebook, at @hashtag_harv on Instagram, and @harveychurch1 on Twitter. You can also find him wandering the streets of Chicago, Toronto, Montreal or the Lido deck of a Princess Cruise ship. If you ever meet Harv, ask to see a magic trick! Don’t forget to sign up for his email list at AListHarvey.com